One Day Out, DTV Switch 2009 Wrap-Up

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If you’re still clueless about Friday’s DTV transition, then I’m not sure what’s wrong with you. Get a converter box, subscribe to cable, call 1-888-CALL-FCC, stare blankly at that analog nightlight, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.
For those of us who have read a newspaper in the past year, Thursday was a flurry of last-minute reports, statements, and predictions about tomorrow’s big switch from analog to digital signals. Here’s the run-down.GOP Reps Calls Shenanigans on Delay
Not everyone is excited about June 12. Reps. Joe Barton of Texas and Cliff Stearns of Florida – both of whom opposed the delay from Feb. 17 to June 12 – penned a letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps that suggested the delay was simply a waste of taxpayer money.
The stimulus package allocated $650 million for the converter box program, $90 million of which could be used for outreach purposes.
According to NTIA data, Commerce has $250 million to cover 6.2 million converter box coupons. “If that is so, why was it necessary to delay the transition and allocate another $650 million in the stimulus package for DTV?” the congressmen wrote.
Meanwhile, of the 3.6 million coupons redeemed with stimulus funds, 900,000 of them were from unprepared households, the letter said.
“Doing the math, $650 million in stimulus funds to reach 900,000 unprepared homes comes to more than $700 per unprepared household for a $50 device. Does that sound like a sensible expenditure of taxpayer dollars?” they wrote.
The congressmen also asked for detailed information on how Commerce and the FCC spent the money allocated by the stimulus package.Officials: Expect Disruptions
Financial inquiries aside, officials at the FCC and Commerce were ready to go, but warned users that confusion and problems will happen tomorrow, no matter what.

“In any change this big, there are going to be disruptions,” Copps said. “We are trying our best to provide people, especially those who are most at-risk, with the help they need to make the switch as smoothly as possible. And we’re going to keep offering it after June 12, so people should call us at 1-888-CALL-FCC.”
“The nation’s DTV transition is a tremendous undertaking,” said NTIA acting Administrator Anna M. Gomez. “The overwhelming majority of Americans are prepared, but despite our best efforts, some will lose television service tomorrow. Consumers should know that even after June 12, they can still apply for coupons to help them purchase TV converter boxes.”
Aneesh Chopra, U.S. chief technology officer, agreed.
There “will be some concern going into tomorrow,” he said at a Thursday event in New York, but he was confident that the call center and Web sites set up to help will do the trick. “We will have done everything in our power” by the time stations flip the switch, he said.
Democratic Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts praised the FCC and NTIA, and reiterated his support of the delay.
“Undoubtedly there will be some confusion and dislocation, especially among the consumers most reliant upon free over-the-air television,” Markey said in a statement. “Yet the situation would have been far worse without [the] additional time and funding needed to educate consumers and convert more households to digital capability. Indeed, the delay of the transition from earlier this year has allowed over 3 and a half million additional households to prepare for the switch.”Preparedness Studies Continue to Roll In
Nielsen has been the go-to organization for DTV preparedness stats lately, but the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Harris Corporation also released data of their own on Thursday.
About 82 percent of households with over-the-air (OTA) TVs are fully prepared for the DTV transition, according to NAB. That’s up from 82 percent in April.
NAB put the number of unprepared OTA households at 2.2 million, or 12 percent. Of that number, three percent have already applied for secured a converter box. Nine percent, or 1.75 million households, have not prepared at all.
“This poll shows that as the deadline inches closer, many procrastinators are taking action and finalizing preparations for the switch to digital,” said Seth Geiger, president of SmithGeiger LLC, which conducted the survey for NAB. “However, nine percent of over-the-air households appear stubbornly resistant to taking any kind of action to upgrade.”
“In a free society, we would never expect to see 100 percent consumer participation in a technological change like the digital television transition,” said NAB vice president of digital television, Jonathan Collegio.
The Harris poll, meanwhile, found that about 69 percent of people believed that the DTV transition would benefit them and their families. Though Nielsen reported that young people were among those least prepared for the switch, Harris found that this same group was the most positive about the DTV transition.
About 55 percent of people said they would probably switch to antennas to receive free, OTA high-definition signals rather than subscribe to cable or satellite subscriptions, Harris said.
The most recent Nielsen report said that 2.5 percent of Americans are totally unprepared for the switch. The Consumer Electronics Association on Thursday questioned those stats and said they probably overestimate the number of unprepared TV watchers.